Historia Norwegiæ
Historia Norwegiæ is a short history of Norway written in Latin by an anonymous monk. The only extant manuscript is in the private possession of the Earl of Dalhousie, and is kept at Brechin Castle, Scotland. However, the manuscript itself is fragmented; the Historia itself is found in folios 1r-12r. The manuscript was previously dated back to the 15th century, but recent dating efforts place it somewhere c. 1500-1510A (Kunin and Phelpstead 2001, x).
The original text appears to have been written earlier than the manuscript itself; the text refers to both a volcanic eruption and an earthquake in 1211 as contemporary events,[1] and Orkney is reported to be under Norwegian rule.
Content
Historia Norwegiæ consists of three parts:
- I. A short geographical survey of Norway and its dominions, followed by a brief history of Norway
- II. Genealogy of the Earls of Orkney
- III. Catalogue of the Kings of Norway
Important Features
One of Historia Norwegiæ's most important features is a Latin translation of an independent version of Þjóðólfr of Hvinir's skaldic poem Ynglingatal. Besides that text, there is the Ynglinga saga in Snorri Sturluson's Heimskringla. The text also contains a number of unique ethnographic details, including a description of a shamanic séance among the Sami people. It is the earliest preserved written source for many of the historical details it contains.
Dates & Publications
Along with Ágrip af Nóregskonungasögum and the work of Theodoricus monachus, Historia Norwegiæ is considered one of the Norwegian synoptic histories, and is thought to have been written, at the earliest, sometime between 1160 and 1175AD. This dating, however, is under debate and the year 1220AD has been put forward as a more conservative suggestion. The text may have been composed somewhere in eastern Norway.
The manuscript was published by Peter Andreas Munch in 1850 as Symbolæ ad Historiam Antiquiorem Rerum Norwegicarum. The standard edition was based on that of Storm (1880) for many years, and the first English translation was done by Kunin and Phelpstead (2001). A new critical edition and translation appeared in 2003.[2]
References
- Ekrem, Inger (editor), Lars Boje Mortensen (editor) and Peter Fisher (translator) (2003). Historia Norwegie. Museum Tusculanum Press. ISBN 87-7289-813-5
- Kunin, Debra (translator) and Carl Phelpstead (editor), A History of Norway and the Passion and Miracles of the Blessed Óláfr (London: Viking Society for Northern Research, University College London, 2001), available at http://vsnrweb-publications.org.uk
- Storm, Gustav (editor) (1880). Monumenta historica Norwegiæ: Latinske kildeskrifter til Norges historie i middelalderen, Monumenta Historica Norwegiae (Kristiania: Brøgger)
- Nordisk familjebok
- Notes and Queries, Issue 56
Notes
- ↑ Katherine Holman. Historical Dictionary of the Vikings. — University of Michigan, 2003, p. 135
- ↑ "Historia Norvegiæ". http://www.tyrmistynyt.info. External link in
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External links
- Historia Norvegiae in English Translation and notes by Kunin and Phelpstead (2001).